Justice Department Sues to Close Georgia Tax Return Preparer

WASHINGTON - The United States has asked a federal court in Dublin, Ga., to permanently bar James J. King from preparing federal income tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. According to the government complaint, King of Telfair County, Ga., operates a business called "James King Tax Service" which prepares federal income tax returns for customers that unlawfully understate income tax liabilities through a variety of schemes.

The government complaint alleges that King prepared returns that fabricate or inflate deductions and that he prepared returns that unlawfully claim the Earned Income Tax Credit. According to the complaint, the Internal Revenue Service has examined over 100 returns prepared by King and found that the great majority of those resulted in a tax deficiency. The total deficiency of the audited returns is alleged to be greater than $400,000. Altogether, the government complaint alleges that King’s activities may have resulted in the tax loss of tens of millions of dollars.

Over the past decade, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained more than 435 injunctions to stop tax fraud promoters and dishonest tax return preparers. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department Web Site.